After the events at the well, everything eventually returned back to normal after their shock had subsided.
Except that didn’t go well for Michael as Cole had beco even more annoying by constantly buzzing around him like an annoying fly.
“I still can't get over it! That..it was amazing how you easily lifted that walker, and how you easily restrained it. Just what were you doing before all this shit went down?” Cole can be a bit too excited at tis, but there are also tis that he would just blurt out the right words at the right ti.
When the people nearby heard the latter part of his words. All of them suddenly slowed down what they were doing, since unlike Cole and the others, they did not have the courage to be as direct to Michael like the rest even when they were curious about it.
Michael thought for a mont on how to properly answer him. He was just thinking if it could beco a problem later on. ”I was part of a secret organization. An off the books one.”
Startled, Cole and the others suddenly felt like they just learned sothing they shouldn’t have.
“Wait..is it okay for you to just tell us like that?” Cole beca a little uncomfortable and stuttered.
Michael shrugged his shoulders. “I guess it's fine. The governnt is now fragnted anyway. It’s not like you’d go out there and then tell it to the dead, right?”
“Uhmm..I’m gonna go see if the guys need more help with filling our water.” Cole quickly left and the others also imdiately resud their duties.
Michael let out a sigh of relief. ‘Finally got rid of that guy. Now, these people have beco even more reserved around . I'm a genius for thinking of this excuse. Even if they are still curious about it later on, there is already no place for them to dig around. It would be better for them to waste that energy helping the group.’
anwhile, Shane was staring at Michael. He looks like he is deep in his thoughts.
“Hey, Michael.”
“What’s up?”
Michael turned to him when he heard his na being called.
“When I was in the Marines. There was a rumor going around about the governnt conducting secret experints on the soldiers.”
“What was it about?”
Listening to Shane’s tone on how he delivered those words, Michael couldn’t help but beco curious.
“Super soldiers.”
It was just two words, but the facial muscles on Michael twitched.
‘What the hell? Super soldiers? Is this guy for real?’ Michael thought that Shane was ssing around at first, but when he saw the grave expression on the man’s face. He realized that Shane probably wasn’t just joking around.
‘Wait a minute..’
Michael finally realized sothing, but he quickly maintained his poker face even when he was having tumultuous emotions inside him.
“No, our work was mostly around the country's security against her enemies.” Michael quickly thought of another excuse. He quickly denied it since he also doesn’t have any clue on anything related to that.
There was a stifling air hanging over the group following that.
Just when the group thought that they had understood Michael a little bit. The sudden revelation from him just gave them even more questions and gave rise to another mystery surrounding him.
“Lunch is ready! Let’s eat!”
Thankfully, the stifling feeling that hung over the camp was shattered when Jacqui suddenly stood up and cried out from out of nowhere.
“I’ll go get the others!”
“Hang on, I’m coming with you.”
It looks like Jacqui had been so engrossed in cooking that she didn’t even realize what just happened earlier. “What’s with them? Did I miss sothing?”
Michael just smiled at her. ‘Super soldier? Is it possible? But since I never inherited the mories of this body prior to my arrival. It actually sounds plausible, especially when I think back to this body’s physique when I first saw it. Except for Strength, the Agility and Vitality were already maxed out then. Damn! Why am I only realizing this now?!’
He was just as confused as the others.
Under the curious gaze of everyone, Michael slowly stood up and left the camp for the farmhouse.
When he left, the survivors remaining at the camp imdiately launched into a tirade of gossiping.
“Oh my god. So that explains why it looked like he knew a lot back at the CDC.”
“Is it possible that he actually knows the reason behind this?”
“Were you not listening? He said he works on matters regarding national security.”
“Is it really?”
Shane shook his head and stopped cleaning the shotguns. “Instead of gossiping behind other people. It would be better if you use that energy on things that can help the group.”
The won imdiately shut their mouths and looked at each other. They imdiately dispersed and looked for sothing else to do.
On the other hand, Daryl and Otis were just coming out of the woods and returning with the gas they hunted.
“The people would be delighted to have deer for tonight’s dinner.” Otis let out a chuckle while carrying a dead deer on his back.
“They better be since we never really went back to that deer you shot before.” Daryl was referring to the one Otis killed and accidentally shot Carl with.
“Yeah, a sha.” Otis already got over the incident with Carl since the Gris couple had already forgiven him.
The others who saw the two returning ca running towards them with huge smiles on their faces, especially when they saw the ga they were bringing ho.
“Holy crap, that is a big deer!” Cole, who was now with Alan on patrol duty ca running towards the two when they spotted them.
“Yeah, it’s a big deer. But first, help with it.” Otis quickly handed the deer over to Cole and Alan. Who quickly carried it away. “Leave the deer by well number one. We’ll clean it after we get there.”
“Got it!” Alan answered as the two made their way towards the farm house.
“Ugghh, my back hurts after all that.” Otis groaned while walking alongside Daryl.
Daryl gave him the side eye. “You didn’t even carry that deer for long.”
Otis just chuckled. After a short hesitation, he turned to Daryl. “Hey, I heard from the others that you’re planning on looking for your brother. Do you want so help?”
Daryl just shook his head. “No need. I don’t even know where to start looking for him.”
“Well, we can start at locations where it's possible for people to build camps. Oh, I rember that there’s also that prison nearby. If it hasn't fallen yet, then there might be people there…convicts in particular.” When he got to the end, even Otis sounded unsure.
Listening to him, Daryl suddenly paused in his tracks and turned to look at Otis. “Wait, there’s a prison nearby?”
Otis looked at him and repeatedly nodded his head. “Yeah, just a few miles south of here. Why? You want to start there?”
“Well, rle might fit in there with how he is. That aside, resources and weapons. That’s what the group urgently needs right now.” Daryl realized the importance of this information and imdiately increased his pace with a new destination in mind.
“Can you take care of the deer yourself, yeah? I need to go talk to soone.”
“Hmm, I guess the prison does look like a good place to start looking for his brother” Otis still looked completely lost. He still hasn’t realized how important the information he had shared to Daryl. Even Michael would be shocked when this reaches his ears.
*****
“Otis said that?”
When Daryl ca up to him, Michael just thought that it was going to be like before, asking how everyone was doing. But he didn’t expect that he would actually hear about the prison from him.
“Yeah, so what do you think? Should we go check it out?” Daryl looked eager.
Michael didn’t imdiately respond as his thoughts were sowhere else. ‘So the people here actually knew about the prison? Wait, it is also possible that Otis might be the only who knows. That still doesn’t sound convincing though since this farmland and the prison were just several miles apart.’
“So, what do you think? That place is surely brimming with resources. That is if those people inside are already dead.”
Michael glanced at him from the side. “Alright. Seems like a good place to start looking for resources. Let’s bring Shane with us and head there after lunch.”
“Just us three?” Daryl looked unsure.
“We can bring more with us, but I’m not confident that they have it in there to kill a person.” Michael explained the reason behind it. He didn’t want to bring anyone who would just slow them down.
‘With the state they’re in, these people would just undermine us if they co with us. I'm not even sure if Rick has the nerve to kill soone during this ti.’
His words made Daryl realize sothing. “Right, we might be forced to kill soone this ti.”
“Can you do it?” Even if Daryl had shown an attitude that seems like he wouldn’t hesitate to draw blood, Michael still wanted to make sure.
“Yeah, I’m not that weak.” Daryl looked resolute. He didn’t even hesitate to respond to him.
Michael chuckled. “No one said you were.”
“Co, it seems like Amy is here to fetch us for lunch.”
Michael gave Daryl a smack on his shoulder. Both of them imdiately made their way towards camp.
*****
While the people were almost done with their lunch, Daryl thought that this might be the appropriate ti to address them.
“Alright, I received information from Otis earlier. He ntioned there’s this prison just several miles south of here. I discussed this with Michael earlier and we thought it might be a good place to search for supplies and possibly additional weapons.” Everyone slowed down as they weren’t expecting that the group discussion would suddenly start this early.
Rick and Shane exchange glances. The forr, quickly raised so valid questions. “Any other information regarding that place? Like is it still operational or it has already been overrun?”
“None, Otis just casually ntioned it. He’s also not sure if the prison is still operational.”
“Let’s assu that the prison still is. We’d need so muscle if we want to raid that place.” Shane also brought up a crucial point on this plan.
Rick thought of sothing. “Then Shane, Michael, Daryl and I will go. Let’s also bring Dale as our sniper to cover our backs with Glenn as both his spotter and guard.”
“No. I don’t think that’s a good idea. I was thinking of just Shane, Daryl and I going there.”
Michael imdiately disagreed with Rick’s proposal.
“Why not? Are you worried that we’re bringing most of our fighters away?” Rick was confused.
Michael really does not want to bring Rick with them as it might complicate the operation when they encounter those prisoners later, who are still surviving inside.
‘We can bring the others with us, but we’ll have to take care of the rest. I wasn’t just expecting for this to happen so soon.’
“We might encounter people we’d need to take care of.” Michael’s words sent a shiver down everyone’s spine. They weren’t expecting that the discussion would suddenly jump into killing people.
“Shane was in the Marines. I’m sure he already had the resolve that he might take another’s life one day. Daryl. Well, he didn’t even hesitate when he wanted to off Jim when he was bitten. As for , it wouldn’t be my first rodeo. The others? I don’t even know if they had killed sothing bigger than a rat before.” Andrea was looking at him like he was a completely different person with how casual his tone was on discussing taking another person’s life.
It wasn’t just her, the others were also witnessing another side of him.
Those words from Michael shut him up. Rick doesn’t think that he has it in him to take soone’s life, and that’s coming from soone who was just at a shootout just two months ago, where it resulted in him being in a coma.
“Al-”
“I’ll co with you.”
He wanted to quickly wrap this when Rick suddenly interrupted him. Both n stared at each other.
Michael saw the determination on the man’s face, and he couldn’t help but smile.
‘From this point on, the progression of the story had truly veered off to another path.’
“Alright, I guess that’s four of us going then. In addition, I just want to inform everyone here...” Michael paused as he slowly carved the faces of everyone here into his mind and let out a breath.
“That I will be temporarily leaving the group”
“What?!”
*****
Now, the story has truly veered off to another path with an uncertain future ahead of them.
Make sure to visit my Patreon for more advance chapters!
User Comments
0 comments from readers